by Frank Holmes, reporter
A former intelligence official, who has described how the U.S. government carried out assassinations on his watch, seems to have threatened the life of a sitting U.S. senator over the senators stance on military promotions. Could the agent go to jail?
A since-restricted post on the social media platform X (formerly called Twitter) asked whether Senator Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., should “be removed from his committee? Yes or No?”
“How about from the human race?” asked General Michael Hayden in a retweet.
Hayden served as director of the National Security Agency under President Bill Clinton and CIA director for President George W. Bush.
The comment came after Tuberville opposed a policy allowing military members to get free travel to get an abortion, and began stalling promotions within the military.
Biden’s secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, promised the U.S. taxpayer would pay pregnant women’s travel expenses to get an abortion and give them 21 days of paid leave time. That’s more than enlisted women receive if they want to care for a sick relative.
Congress didn’t pass any law to this effect; Biden just declared the policy.
Tuberville says that’s illegal: It violates a nearly 50-year-old law called the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding of abortion.
After months of refusal, Tuberville put a hold on mass promotions last December, preventing the Senate from approving huge batches of military promotions all at once.
Tuberville isn’t actually blocking anyone from being promoted, but it slows the process to a crawl. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York can bring up each promotion for a vote individually… and he recently started to do so.
Schumer has targeted Tuberville in his uphill battle to keep control of the Senate.
Hayden wants to target Tuberville in a different way.
How about the human race? https://t.co/UCGCfF1lA3
— Gen Michael Hayden (@GenMhayden) October 10, 2023
The comment drew immediately outrage.
“Hayden – a former four-star general, NSA director, and CIA director – is openly musing about the assassination of a sitting US Senator,” said Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., who called the implicit threat “vile.”
“After promoting the Russiagate hoax and lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop, why not threaten US Senators? Disgraceful,” said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. “General Hayden should apologize. Instead he’s doubling down.”
Others, like Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway, pointed out that Hayden is “a renowned civil liberties violator, promoted the Biden laptop coverup and the Russia collusion scam.”
Not only did Hayden admit to collecting huge amounts of data on Americans, but he admitted, “We kill people based on metadata.”
“But that’s not what we do with this metadata,” Hayden claimed.
At the time, a presidential review commission warned that “at some point in the future, high-level government officials will decide that this massive database of extraordinarily sensitive private information is there for the plucking”…maybe even for another government official.
“If anyone knows something about getting innocent Americans killed, it’s you,” Virginia state Delegate Nick Freitas told Hayden.
Tuberville, a former college football coach, shot back himself.
“My office has reported this incident to the Capitol Police and I expect that they will once again do an excellent job protecting members of Congress and bringing criminals to justice,” Tuberville responded.
Hayden’s statement is “repugnant to everything we believe in as Americans.”
With Hayden’s long service, he “must have known that, by making such a statement, he was committing a serious crime,” said Sen. Tuberville. “If we still have a nonpolitical justice system in this country, then General Hayden will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
My statement on General Hayden. pic.twitter.com/KQ0sLz6gTQ
— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) October 10, 2023
Instead of apologizing, Hayden claimed he was “surprised to wake up this morning and discover that many MAGAnuts had lost their minds over my suggestion that ‘Coach’ Tuberville not be considered a member of the human race. I stand by that view.”
I was surprised to wake up this morning and discover that many MAGAnuts had lost their minds over my suggestion that “Coach” Tuberville not be considered a member of the human race. I stand by that view. I’m wishing you all a nice day even the intransigent Tommy Tuberville.
— Gen Michael Hayden (@GenMhayden) October 10, 2023
Tuberville noticed that all of the people who had the courage to stand up to Hayden had something in common: They were all Republicans.
“I am not aware of a single Democrat member of Congress who has condemned this reckless statement,” wrote Sen. Tuberville. “This deafening silence tells us everything we need to know about Democrats and their commitment to ‘Our Democracy.’”
“I did not expect to be popular among the clown show, but I certainly did not expect to be threatened by former government officials like Michael Hayden,” Tuberville concluded.
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”